Everything Minus Love Equals Nothing Series

and she could leave the next morning when his sister would be arriving.

The sister did come and Ann left. When the man got home he found the envelope still

there, and with it this note: "I don't want any money for baby-sitting. I am glad as a

Christian I could help you in your hour of need." That man was so impressed that he called

Bethel. He said he did not know that people like her existed, and that her love had an impact

on him greater than all the sermons he ever heard. She never moved any mountains, but she

moved men, and did what no amount of eloquence, or any other gift, could have

accomplished. That is why Paul wants us all to covet this gift.

Paul says love never fails. Faith can fail and turn to doubt. Hope can fail and turn to

despair. But love endures to the end. People wonder about security in Christ, and the

answer is in love. Can people be lost who are preachers, or teachers, or speakers in tongues,

or people who do wonders? Yes, all of such can be lost, for security is not in these things, or

anything else. It is in Christ, and we only have Christ in reality when the love that took Him

to the cross is in our hearts, and motivating our lives.

The controversy over eternal security can easily be resolved by showing that both sides

are correct. People can have every gift in the book and be marvelous professing Christians,

and yet have not security, because everything minus love is nothing. Eternal security is

found in the love of Christ that gives value to all of the other gifts and virtues of the

Christian life. Each side of the controversy has much Scripture to back up their view, and

each can be right when it is all seen in the light of the importance of love. But it is not enough

to be right, for even being right is nothing without love. Nothing is enough without love, but

with love all is of value. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ, but we must

have this love to have that kind of assurance and security.

John confirms this truth of Paul in I John. He writes in I John 2:5-6, "But if anyone obeys

his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. "This is how we know we are in him:

Whoever claims to love in him must walk as Jesus did." In 2:15 He writes, "Do not love the

world or anything in the world. If anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in

him." In 3:14 he writes, "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love

our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains n death." In 4:7-12 he writes, "Dear

friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born

of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. this

is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son in to the world that we

might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his

Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to

love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love each other, God loves in us and